Pillbox Holder - OpenSCAD Customizer

Sometimes when you're on more than a couple medications, you can't keep track of which ones are running out when. And say a med runs out on a Sunday, so you've filled the current week up, and by the time Sunday rolls around, it's already the weekend and you have no medication to take! UH OH!!! I hate when that happens!

Fear no more! Now you can fill up multiple weeks at a time, and know from a glance when you'll be out in plenty of advance notice to refill, with vertical stacking to minimize drop spillage to boot. For those that take morning and evening and travel too, these can be bulky to carry the full three weeks, so you can print off one that is simply a one-week "travel" holder. (Pic #1 shows the full-size I used briefly on the left, with a "travel" variant on the right)

All you need to supply are those dollar-each "once a day" boxes available from corner drug stores -- though I recommend avoiding any with ink on top given the "wear and tear" rubs it off on the plastic and you're left second-guessing which day is which! (Seriously, check out pic #2, I am not joking) I have tested Walgreens and CVS and both fit just fine. For any that don't, the OpenSCAD file is provided so you can adjust as needed.

I know they make "twice a day" med boxes, but typically they're meant for smaller or behemoth pill sizes with nothing in between. This fits my needs flawlessly.

Notes / Licensing

• As always, my stuff is the "just don't sue me k?" BSD license so it can be used for any purpose whatsoever, private or commercial. Giant family with lots of kids that needs a way to keep their medications straight? Check. Elderly caretakers needing to keep advance notice on meds? Check. Married with two cat children? Present. Vets? Check--no theother kind--well actually both? Why not!
• The print seen in pic #2 is my very first functional 3D print, printed VERY shortly after the wumpus I designed in mid-2015, which is why it is red. The others shown in pic #1 are very recent, only once I made the Google SketchUp to OpenSCAD conversion. The fact that functional print #1 has held up so well is a testament to the simplicity of the design given it sees regular use to this day (with a short break for a twice-a-day medication, which saw the setup in pic #1 being used, itself requiring the conversion)

Recommendations

• PLA. Don't overkill this, your meds will go long before the plastic does, and PLA has the right amount of flex to allow those braille bumps and the feet to work past without being too hard on the print.
• Consider color. If you have multiple people in your household that take pills and you want a rather universal setup, let everyone pick a color and print holders in that color. I just had a bunch of red sitting around from the aforementioned wumpus, but for multiple people in the same house using this same setup, each person could have their own color, for example.
• If you are unsure on fitment, and don't want to waste much filament, use the OpenSCAD file and set Rows and Cols to 1 each. Then print it and see how it handles. If adjustments are needed, relevant variables are at top of [ module single(isFirst) ] as well as at the top of the file, and names should be self-explanatory.
• "Standard" nozzle diameter, infill, shell, perimieters, etc. should all be fine. Raft actually may make things worse for removal, I have found that the best way to free the print off the bed is to pinch the squares, it pops right off without tools and without even removing the bed either. Just wait for the bed to cool down a bit first.

Outstanding issues

• You can make the columns further spaces apart horizontally (useful for widening the opening gap), but not the rows vertically (probably useful for inspection of meds or just to strengthen the design a bit more during a tumble). Need to add row padding as a result.

Changelog

2018-12-01

• Initial Upload

Category: Organization